Highline Community College is collaborating with the Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI), a pioneer in offering Sustainable MBA and certificate programs, to expand its StartZone program outside the South King County area.

StartZone is a microenterprise development program providing economically disadvantaged residents of South King County with no-cost training, technical assistance and other resources to improve financial self-sufficiency through self-employment and small business ownership. Established in 2008 through the support of Senator Maria Cantwell, the program has served over 1,000 emerging entrepreneurs, and its nearly 500 members have accessed over $500,000 in financing (startup or expansion), launched 65 new businesses and created over 100 new jobs.

BGI Dean, John Gardner, Ph.D. stated, “We are excited to have this opportunity to work with Highline, the home for StartZone and the institution who has seen it through the proof of concept stage, to explore StartZone’s expansion.  As a private, non-profit business school, we hope to both add capacity through our students and innovative networks and to provide the agility to spawn other sites outside South King County. ”

Highline and BGI are co-sponsoring a reception to be held from 4-6 p.m. on May 18^th at the Burien Community Center, located at 14700 6th Avenue South in Burien. The event will provide marketing opportunities for nearly 20 client businesses including arts and crafts, food and a range of service providers. Representatives from BGI and Highline’s StartZone program will be present to discuss their shared vision to help create economic self-sufficiency for disadvantaged small businesses to more underserved communities throughout the state. The event is free and open to the public.

The Bainbridge Graduate Institute was the first school to offer an MBA in Sustainable Business. Founded in 2002, BGI offers evening and weekend MBA and Certificate programs that thoroughly integrate environmental and social responsibility into every subject of the traditional core business curriculum. BGI works to help other business schools become more sustainable.